Warmer water temperatures and other weather factors are expected to increase the potential for hurricanes in the Gulf. AccuWeather's outlook here.

It’s not for lack of fuel we’ve been so silent. Gulf waters are running hot; surface temperatures range from 84 to 88 degrees. And it’s not just the surface; ocean heat content, which measures warmth at deeper levels, is exceptionally high in the western Caribbean and southern Gulf.

Hurricane season peaks on September 10. Here's where things stand from the season's outlook to current ocean temperatures.

Tropical Depression 7 is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm later today or tonight and into a hurricane over the weekend.

While the Gulf of America has been relatively quiet so far this hurricane season, forecasts show that may be changing as the peak of the season approaches.

The tropical hazard outlook for September, issued by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center this week, indicates that forecasters expect the warmer waters to increase the chances of tropical activity in the Gulf next week. The second half of hurricane season typically sees more activity in the Caribbean and Gulf than the first half.

Very warm waters, steering currents and other factors point to the Gulf of Mexico as the main area of concern for tropical development over the next couple of weeks, AccuWeather meteorologists say.

A tropical wave in the central Atlantic is poised for development, but the Gulf's record-warm waters pose the most immediate and dangerous threat to the United States. A tropical wave moving across the central Atlantic is producing a large area of disorganized showers and storms,